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Remarks by Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA 21 May 2009, Kigali, Rwanda
Your Excellency, President Paul Kagame I am pleased to be here in Kigali for this Third Ministerial Meeting on Financing for Development. I thank His Excellency, President Paul Kagame for being here with us today. Mr. President, you are a source of great inspiration for us all because of your intellectual and dynamic leadership which is evident, once again, by the key role that you are playing to help Africa respond appropriately to the challenge of climate change. Our appreciation also goes to you and the Government and people of Rwanda for the kind hospitality and excellent arrangements made for meeting. The critical role of finance in the development process was underscored both at the Monterrey Conference in 2002 and the 2008 Doha Review Conference. Its importance is also evident from the serious financing gaps that developing countries face as a consequence of the current global economic and financial crisis. Therefore, we salute the far-sighted decision taken by African Ministers of Finance to organize regular Ministerial Meetings on Financing for Development to keep track of the progress on the Monterrey Consensus. The Secretariat of this conference is provided by ECA and AfDB. Dr Kaberuka, would have wanted to be personally here today, but due to other pressing commitments, he could not make it to Kigali. He asked me to convey to this conference his warmest greetings and wishes of a successful outcome. He is ably represented by his Vice-President, Dr. Zeinab El Zakri. I would also like to convey our gratitude to DfID for the support it has been rendering to the secretariat and this conference in particular. The Kigali Conference is taking place at a time when Africa is preparing to adopt a common position for the negotiations of a post-2012 global climate change regime, due to be concluded in Copenhagen in December 2009. The 12th Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) of June 2008 requested the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), whose Executive Director, my good friend, Achim Steiner, is here with us, in collaboration with the Commission of the African Union, ECA, the African Development Bank and other relevant intergovernmental institutions, to provide technical and policy support to Africa’s climate change negotiators for the preparation of such a common negotiating position. A special AMCEN Session has been scheduled for 29 May 2009 to conclude work on a common position which will be submitted to the 13th session of the African Union Summit in July 2009 for consideration. The negotiations of the post-2012 global climate agreement are articulated around the five key areas of mitigation, adaptation, technology, capacity building, and financing all of which are of great importance for Africa. Financing, however, stands out as a crucial issue for Africa especially as concerns effective adaptation that will enable long term resilience to climate change and its various impacts. This challenge is a major one because climate change can undermine the ability of Africa to meet the targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and make overall progress towards sustainable development. African countries have placed high expectations on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol but international responses on adaptation have so far fallen short of what is required. Although several multilateral financial mechanisms have been created, delivery has been limited partly because most of the public funds created rely on voluntary contributions and have not raised sufficient financial resources. So far, less than 15% of the funds pledged to developing countries have actually been disbursed. Africa has received less than 12% of the total funds actually disbursed in the last four years. As a result, only three out of the hundreds of projects identified in 39 National Adaptation Programmes of Action in Africa are currently being implemented. As of end-2007, proceeds from the sale of emission credits from CDM projects amounted to $7.4 billion. However, only 17 out of 1186 CDM projects are located in sub-Saharan Africa, most of which (14 out of 17) were located in South Africa. Adaptation cost estimates vary widely, but remain considerable between the World Bank’s minimum figure of US$10 billion in 2020 to the UNDP’s US$ 86 billion in 2015. Moreover, developing countries are calling for between $200 billion and $400 billion per annum for both mitigation and adaptation in the context of the climate change negotiations. These figures underscore that the mobilization and organization of adequate resources is an important consideration in the negotiations. In their submission to the UNFCCC, Africa’s negotiators have already underscored that a future financial mechanism that meets the needs of African countries should provide for funding that is adequate to meet their adaptation needs and be additional to existing Official Development Assistance (ODA). Also key are issues of equity, predictability, coherence and accountability as they will form the basis to Monitor, Report and Verify (MRV) progress on outcomes. The entire process should of course ensure direct access to resources by African countries with minimal conditionalities, intermediaries and transactions costs and in line with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness; Africa’s political leadership is playing its own part in ensuring that the continent is well positioned to respond to the challenge of climate change. The January 2007 Summit of the African Union called on all stakeholders to integrate climate change considerations into development plans, strategies and programmes at national and regional levels. In addition, it requested the African Union Commission to work with ECA and the African Development Bank to develop and implement a major plan on climate change and development in Africa. Accordingly, the three institutions, in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), have partnered effectively to develop and implement the Climate for Development-Africa (ClimDev-Africa) Programme. The overall goal of ClimDev is to promote the sustainable attainment of the MDGs and overall sustainable development in Africa by scaling up the capacities of key institutions and stakeholders to improve climate-related data and observation, information services, policies, investment processes and risk-management practices in climate-sensitive sectors. ClimDev-Africa will be implemented at the regional, sub-regional and national levels with the active involvement of the RECs and other key stakeholders such as river basin organizations. Implementation of ClimDev rests on two key instruments: the ECA-based African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC) as its policy arm and the AfDB-based ClimDev-Africa Special Fund (CDSF) as its financial arm. Within the framework of ACPC and with support from the UK Department of International Development (DFID), ECA has been supporting Africa’s participation in the negotiations on the new climate change agreement including through identification of resource persons, preparation of policy briefs and technical papers and supporting the convening of several climate change related meetings. Some of these technical and policy documents will be shared at both this Conference and the AMCEN Special Session. Given that climate change transcends environmental issues and is indeed a core developmental issue, it is crucial that views and recommendations of Finance Ministers are effectively fed to the process of preparation of the common African negotiating position. To this effect, ECA is willing to sponsor the participation of an official mandated by this Conference to take its outcomes to the AMCEN Special Meeting. We are, through the ACPC already sponsoring climate change negotiators and experts from all African countries and Regional Economic Communities. We are also offering to host the African Pre-Conference of Parties to the Copenhagen negotiations in Addis Ababa in October 2009 These are just some elements of our full commitment and engagement in supporting Africa’s efforts at addressing the enormous challenges that climate change poses for the continent. I wish to reiterate the continued support of your secretariat, as well as that of the African Union Commission in this endeavor. I am sure that with the support of all its partners, this continent will secure a fair and just outcome in climate change negotiations. I thank you for your kind attention and wish this Conference very fruitful deliberations. |
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